To test or not

[kitedoc]

@kitedoc . I totally agree with you that T1 must test because they are on insulin and also for diabetics in general as to know what food effects their levels and so on, but the point i was trying to make and this is just in my own circumstances and not speaking for everyone, was that it really was becoming a real obsession with me and a bad number would ruin the whole day for me, even if i woke up healthy and happy, that bad reading ruined my day. In my own case i was thinking of stopping it for a week or so or maybe even take it a couple of days, but not to the point were i seem to be doing it constantly. Speaking of blood pressure i have white coat hypertension so have to take it at home and i was doing the same with that as i'm now doing the finger pricking. The blood pressure was years ago now so i don't take it all the time but maybe once a week or sometimes even monthly. I understand that diabetes is a forever condition and i will always have to be careful. Things that are out of my control, such as illness or stress or pain and certain medications, well those things i can do little about except to whether it out so to speak. Thanks for your input on it.

Thank you @Moggely, I do understand. And whereas I can put in a correction dose of insulin to deal with a highish BSL you will have less control of what you can do right away. They say that necessity is the mother of invention, so I am hoping for a less painful way of measuring BSLs. At some point you may find bsls monitoring is needed for you but may the 'evil' day be far away.
I put up a saying in Diabetes R Us: My diabetes is like a spelling test: Full of corrections.

 

[Moggely]

I will certainly continue to measure but just giving my mind rest as it's always on numbers for a short time. I saw your.."
My diabetes is like a spelling test: Full of corrections". Truer word has never been spoken. lol.

 

[Resurgam]

Testing the blood is all part of the learning process - I am sure that when starting to drive a car everyone is looking down at the speedometer quite regularly, but now I've been driving for decades if I glance at the speedo it is just as a check when slowing down after being on the motorway and it usually shows near enough 30 MPH
It is exactly the same with my controlling blood glucose. Now I have got the hang of it, if I do test it is about right.
The problems can be that for some people not so lucky as myself, low carb foods don't do the trick, and for others the evidence that a meal has spiked their BG is not acted upon.
I had just 80 days between diagnosis and my first Hba1c test, but I dropped from 91 to 47 in that time, by testing and acting on what I saw. I was already low carbing, so it was fine tuning, discovering that legumes are best avoided for instance.

 

[pollensa]

I tested for three months after diagnosis and am currently not testing. From the moment of diagnosis I embarked on a keto (<20g) low carb diet (green veggies, a square or two of Lindt 85%) with daily intermittent fasting and mostly eating only one meal a day. Over time I found my pre and post evening meal levels to generally be within 0.5mmol of each other, sometimes the same. My fasting glucose was all over the place though - ranging from 4.6 to 6.5. After my first review (HbA1c down from 52 to 35), I stopped testing my fasting BG because it stopped me worrying about it. At present I only test if if I've been out for a meal and might have inadvertently eaten something I wouldn't normally eat - and even then this is more out of curiosity than anything else. When I do test I use a Codefree meter and am happy with it. I would add that I'm not on any diabetes meds and if my HBA1c at the end of October shows an increase, I will probably resume testing. But right now I'm happy not testing. And as I am on lifelong anticoagulants and bruise easily, my fingers are really happy that I'm not testing too...

(Edited for typos and syntax errors!)

~Heath

Congratulations, admire your style of control and its working for you, and you have a sensible approach to the whole situation.
Sorry to hear your fingers, a little tip, I have one, why not google and see Genteel, finger prick tester, you can test on fingers, palm hands, arm, top of knee it provides with 6 different gradings for different parts of the body, no pain, just a click as its a suction technique, and biggest bonus to help you overall no sore fingers, and happy fingers all the time...May be of help to you.

 

[liarsdance]

Congratulations, admire your style of control and its working for you, and you have a sensible approach to the whole situation.
Sorry to hear your fingers, a little tip, I have one, why not google and see Genteel, finger prick tester, you can test on fingers, palm hands, arm, top of knee it provides with 6 different gradings for different parts of the body, no pain, just a click as its a suction technique, and biggest bonus to help you overall no sore fingers, and happy fingers all the time...May be of help to you.

Thank you! I use an Accu chek multiclix at the moment but many thanks for the recommendation! Much appreciated